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What’s Next?
I have many projects in the works and others on the back burner. After the release of The Christmas Album, I’ve got a few collaborative projects in the works for 2024, as well as a solo piano album of original compositions. Here’s a glimpse of what’s to come ——>
Upcoming projects for 2025:
A 10-track album of meditation music.
A collaborative EP of some funk with the phenomenal flautist, Matt McKay.
A collaborative album with Gulches.
The release of my composition Flute Fantasie for flute and piano.
10-15 track album of original compositions for solo piano.
Roominations
August 27th, 2024
Since the end of 2023, Alex Haydon and I had been working on recording his latest album, Roominations, releasing it in August of 2024. There had been complications with building a new studio, but we managed to get everything recorded, mixed and mastered. On a few of the tracks, like Dreamer’s Boat, Tanager, I40 Blues and I’d Really Like To Know You, I provided some piano, tin whistle and other layers of musical elements to blend our unique sounds together. It was a very fun project to have worked on and by far our greatest work we’ve made, so please give Alex Haydon’s album, Roominations, a listen and like on streaming services under his artist name, Roomie McGee.
The Christmas Album Vol. 1
November 30th, 2023
Since early September I worked on writing arrangements for some Christmas music. I originally planned out 12 carols and songs that I wanted to do. Unfortunately, Christmas comes a lot faster than you think, even when trying to prepare a couple of months in advance. So, I opted to just write as many as I could while leaving myself time to practice them and record them, and I managed to get 5 piano arrangements done and record 2 bonus tracks that are done with different instruments.
The Christmas songs on the album include: We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Silent Night, Carol of the Bells, O Come All Ye Faithful, The Christmas Song, The First Noel, and Little Drummer Boy. The album was recorded at my home on my piano because I wanted it to feel as though you’re in my living room and I’m playing Christmas music for you.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :)
Roaring Silence
Late July-September 1st, 2023
After a couple of months of preparation, I finally had my piano composition, Roaring Silence, recorded professionally and released it into the world September 1st.
I was lucky enough to meet Mike Baker with DSL Recording Studios after tuning the piano in his studio. He was my last appointment of the day, and I stayed after to talk to him about music and my passion for writing. He seemed to be the right guy to talk to because he told me he would love to help me get some of the music I had written over the years recorded. The rest is history.
My concept for the piece was to create something calming and relaxing that resembles that moment of silence when one is either ruminating, meditating, or praying. the resulting silence can seem very profound and intense, or “loud”. Hence the oxymoronic title. My hope is that this piece induces the listener into that state and invites them to be fully present in the here and now.
Funky Apparitions
October 31st, 2023
In the midst of working on an EP with Matt McKay, we changed gears to work on a release for Halloween. Keep in mind, that it was early October, and during a session Matt brought this up, saying, “We should do a Halloween track.” Well, ideally, we would have already worked on it and should have had it uploaded to streaming services by now, the whole 9 yards. Well, we met almost every other day and managed to upload it to streaming services just days before Halloween, and thus Funky Apparitions was born.
If you don’t scare easily, give our single a listen…if you dare.
Sleep Music Videos
April 7th-30th, 2023
Since the Sleep Music album has been so popular on Spotify, gaining well over 25,000 streams in total, I decided that the album should have some visuals to accompany the music. My friend Elise Partain came up with the mesmerizing visuals and I was able to upload two videos, one an hour-long video, and an 8hr looped video. Watch the videos here. If you’d like to go to Elise’s site, click Elise Partain
En La Casa
March 31st, 2023
Another collaborative track with Gulches in the books. Between large projects, such as our upcoming EP, Celtronix, we tend to open up a new project for fun to see where our creative moods take us. In this case, it took us on a path to create some house music. If you’d like to hear the final product, click En La Casa
Familiar Sights and Sounds EP
January 8th, 2023
After 3 months of hard work, Alex Haydon’s EP, Familiar Sights and Sounds, is finally finished and out on streaming platforms. We had a lot of fun recording this EP in the studio; plenty of laughter, pizza, and beer. The recording sessions were a learning experience for both of us as it was a test run of my new studio setup and equipment. For Alex, it was his first time recording some of his original tunes. It was a very rewarding experience in that I was able to reassure, encourage and help Alex feel more confident about his music and ideas. It felt good to bring someone joy by helping them make their ideas come to life.
Listen to Familiar Sights and Sounds
There are many people to thank and give credit to that were involved in recording and making the EP:
Alex Haydon — singer-songwriter, guitar, and vocals.
Blakeley Burger — violin. https://www.blakeleyburger.com/
Jake Reber, Jose Oreta — bass.
Elsi Hernandez, Alberto Sotelo, Sarah Spalding — chorus backup vocals
Brett Butzer — Mastering engineer. https://www.gulchesbeats.com/
Good Night — Album of Sleep Music
December 30th, 2022
My concept of creating a series of albums of different kinds of new-age music started with creating a bunch of sleep music. About half a year ago, I started a sound design for the 10 tracks on the album, but I ran into issues.
First, the process that my friend Brett and I came up with didn’t work because we would take a track that was recorded at, say, around 2 minutes, then stretch it with time flex. At first, it seemed to work, but there were issues with pitch and time that didn’t seem natural once stretched to around 5-6 minutes.
Second, when I decided to start from scratch again and record straight through for 5-6 minutes on each individual track for all the parts, my computer couldn’t handle it. Being a computer from early 2015 with an old processor chip running updated software was too much for it, so I finally saved up some money to trade it in for a new one.
Lastly, when I could finally record and start getting tracks done, I was halfway done with the album when I sent some tracks for mastering to my friend Brett. He got back to me, explaining that there were phasing/correlation issues that needed troubleshooting.
Finally, after troubleshooting, recording, mixing, and mastering all 10 tracks, I commissioned Bernadette Mudd-White, a local artist, for the album art and released the album for people to enjoy while falling asleep and/or while sleeping. So if you need some soothing music to lull you to sleep tonight, listen to my sleep music album, Good Night.
Manzanita
September 3rd, 2022
Recently I had the pleasure of helping my friend Alex Haydon record one of his songs, Manzanita. He wrote the chord progression, melody, and lyrics and had me add some piano and melodica. I also helped him with the tune's structure and adding effects since he wanted to go for a psychedelic feel. Lastly, I finished up the mix and sent it to my friend and fantastic sound engineer Brett Butzer, also known as Gulches, for a final review of the mix and had him do the master. Once it was finished, Alex made a video that he filmed with Blakeley Burger on their trip out west to Yosemite and posted it to YouTube. It was a very fun project to work on, and look forward to the next project. More to come!
Indecent by Paula Vogel
July 27th-August 14th, 2022
For 3 weeks, I had a wonderful time being both the accordionist and music director for the play/musical called Indecent by Pulitzer-prize-winning Paula Vogel, directed by David Y. Chack. Learning the style of Klezmer music was a challenge, but once I got the hang of it, it was thrilling because Yiddish/Jewish folk music is very emotional and fun to play. I encourage anyone who hasn’t heard of the play or Klezmer music to look up both because the play is very powerful, and Klezmer music gives the world so much beauty and joy. It is bittersweet that performances have ended, but I will have fond memories of performing with the cast members and fellow musicians for the rest of my life.
Time Reclaimed
August 11th, 2022
Since I reconnected with my friend Brett Butzer in the past year, I’ve been going over to his studio to collaborate on multiple projects, and one day I walk into the studio, he tells me, “So you know that track we worked on last time? I decided to add it to the new album.” I was shocked at first but then so grateful and honored because he’s a great sound engineer. Not only would Sea Crazy appear with Gulches on his newest album, but with AD Kindle, a phenomenal up-and-coming rapper based in Louisville. Whenever Brett needs me to hop on a track, I’m more than happy to lay down some harmonies, bass lines, and melodies, and that’s exactly what I did on his new album, CITIZEN, on the track Time Reclaimed. More collabs with Gulches to come! Listen to Time Reclaimed
Time Reclaimed by Gulches is also out on Apple Music, Youtube music, Amazon music, Soundcloud, Deezer, Tidal, and more!
Check out Gulches’ website here: www.gulchesbeats.com
Back to Louisville
Early June, 2022
After 2 years back in Lexington, KY, I finally moved back to Louisville, KY, and it is very good to be back. When I graduated from Bellarmine University in 2020, I started preparing for grad school auditions by taking a year off. After about a year of memorizing 2 hours’ worth of music and practicing 4-6 hours daily, I got stressed and burnt out. I needed time to do some odd jobs and to figure life out. So I became a roofing salesman for a month. I worked in an upscale Italian restaurant, running food, being expo, working the line, and being the Spanish interpreter. I worked as a swim coach for my fourth and final summer at a country club. I was a Spanish tutor for some students in the Spanish Immersion program at Maxwell Elementary. I worked as a Para-educator assisting teachers in the MSD program (Special Ed) for Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, during which I also taught piano lessons here and there and accompanied a violinist for a recital and a competition, all while working as a USMS swim coach throughout the past year. I moved back to Louisville in early June to work as a full-time piano technician. I am finally making my way back to music by writing more, networking, jamming with musicians, and seeing my friends perform. It is very refreshing, and I couldn’t be happier. I look forward to serving the music community here in Louisville for many more years.
